Petrified Pearls

Jewelry Discussion
1

All, A gentleman from the west coast of FL contacted me recently and
asked if I had any knowledge on petrified pearls. Unfortunately I do
not and had to tell him so…but, thought it a good idea to check
with the forum.

Following is some of the informtion he provided me.

I called the biggest gem dealers in ny city and they said they could
xray it to tell if its real or not and can’t do a appraisal. I
already know for a fact its a real pearl we found three of them in
frist piles of fossil shells from a thirty foot deep shell pit in
fla.

Please let me know so we can possibly help him out.

Cheers from Don at The Charles Belle Studio in SOFL where simple
elegance IS fine jewelry! @coralnut2

2

“Petrified” means turned to stone, and is generally applied to
things that started out organic (wood) or were bio-minerals (shell,
bone) and now have a changed chemistry or crystalline structure. If
the pearls you found are unchanged - and if they’re still nice and
pearly, that may be the case - they may just be old. Not everything
buried is fossilized. If you have a broken or damaged one, try the
geology department at a local college. They can do a thin section
and analyze it with a petrographic microscope, and tell you a lot
about its history.

Tas